The proposed research is an investigation into the social relations and microecology of the physically disabled, specifically of persons rendered paraplegic by spinal cord damage incurred through trauma or disease. The subject population is further defined as adults of either sex between the ages of 20 and 55, a span that encompasses the occupationally most active part of the life cycle in American culture. In its inquiry into the social world of the paraplegically handicapped, the research will investigate social interaction among paraplegics and between paraplegics and the unimpaired, as conditioned by cultural attitudes toward handicap. Special attention will be given to subjects in the familial setting and with work cohorts, if employed. The project is based upon the established, almost self-evident, premise that paraplegia, and confinement to a wheelchair, radically alters familial relations and more ramified social networks, engendering changes in social identity as well as social role. The nature and severity of these changes and their impact upon both the disabled and their social systems will be focal interests. The research will be directed at both new and long established paraplegics to provide transitional data on the assumption of the role of the disabled. Also to be considered are the specific physical limitations of the paraplegic as they affect his ability to control and manipulate his environment and, therefore, as they define and impinge upon his social space. Principal methods of inquiry to be used will be the anthropological techniques of participant-observation and extended interviews.